Step 1. Configuring your computer’s BIOS*

*Note: This may not be necessary if your computer is correctly set up and boots from USB/DVD automatically. If upon restart you see a screen “Press any key to boot from USB/DVD…” you can press any key on your keyboard and move to the next step.

Start by inserting your Windows 10 installation media into the PC — this can be a DVD or USB flash drive. If you haven’t created it yet, read our article on how to create a Windows 10 USB flash drive. Now restart the computer and enter the BIOS (F2, F9, F12 or Del on most PCs).

Tip: If you’re on a laptop and you’re unsure what your BIOS key is, a simple Google search like this should help you out.

After pressing the correct key, navigate to the Boot section of the BIOS, using the right arrow key.

The controls of each BIOS are usually displayed at the bottom (unless you’re lucky enough to have a GUI BIOS – in which case you’ll be able to use the mouse to navigate). Use these to navigate to the device from which you will be installing Windows and to place it at the top. I’ll be using a DVD, so I’ll place “CD-ROM Drive” at the top. If you’ll be using a USB drive you should move “USB Device” or “Removable Devices” to the top.

Once you’re done with changing the boot order, use the right arrow key to move to the Exit section of the BIOS. From there you’ll want to select “Exit Saving Changes” followed by a Yes or “y”.

After this, your computer should be able to restart straight into the Windows installer.

Note: — if greeted by a “Press any key to boot from…” do press that key! You won’t get to the installer otherwise.

Step 2. Installing Windows 10

After rebooting you should see the Language select screen. From here, simply select your desired language, time and currency format, and keyboard input. Then press Next to continue.

On the next screen simply press the “Install now” button.

You’ll need to agree to the Microsoft EULA before you can continue. Read it (…or not) and tick the checkbox before pressing “Next”.

To perform a clean install, you’ll need to select the “Custom: Install Windows only” option. As the installer says — you should have a backup of your files and programs in order to copy them to the new installation after it’s complete.

This next part may be a bit tricky if you have multiple hard drives or partitions. You’ll need to delete the primary partition and the system partition. To ensure a 100% clean install it’s better to fully delete these instead of just formatting them.

After deleting both partitions you should be left with some unallocated space. Select it and click the “New” button to create a new partition.

By default, Windows inputs the maximum available space for the partition. I’d advise you to leave the size as-is and press “Apply“.

Note: You will most likely be informed that Windows may create additional system partitions. This is normal and necessary for most windows installs, so simply press “OK”.

After creating the new partition(s), select the primary one and press “Next”.

The Windows setup should now begin. Clean installs are usually significantly faster than upgrades so you should get from this…

… to this in a matter of minutes.

After “Finishing up”, you will be notified that Windows will now restart.

Warning: If the “Press any key to boot from USB/DVD…” screen appears while restarting DO NOT PRESS ANY KEY! Pressing one will result in starting the install all over again.

Step 3. Configuring Windows

After the reboot, you should be greeted by the following screen. The default Windows 10 settings are perfectly fine and don’t really mess with your privacy, so we advise you to Use Express settings. Optionally, you can also Customize the settings if you insist on turning some features off.

Windows will now go through a few setup procedures.

Note: Frequent reboots at this stage are normal, simply leave the computer be until you reach the “Create an account” screen.

Once you reach this screen simply fill in your new account details and press Next.

11 Comments

Joe L

I have windows 10 Pro installed on my main computer. Will this clean setup reinstall the Pro version? Also how about the program’s currently installed? Will I have to reinstall them? I’m not worried with saved data, files, pictures etc as they are on cloud storage systems.
Thank you
Joe L

The installed version of Windows depends entirely on the ISO used. As far as I’m aware the ISOs from the Windows website are for Windows 10 Pro so there’s no need to worry. You will need to reinstall your programs, however – all your data will be erased from the PC, too.

Stefan.
Thank you for your reply. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to re-install office 2010. It’s a little behind the times, but it’s bought and paid for, but I lost the authorization key. Guess I’ll have to contact Microsoft.

I performed a clean install of Windows 10, without first upgrading from my previous version of Windows 8.1. This resulted in a ‘Activate Windows’ watermark on the bottom right corner of my screen.

After reading a few things online, I find out (too late of course), that I should have upgraded Windows via Windows Update, then do a clean install.
Tried calling Microsoft, they just said wait 2 days, then call back if it still hasn’t activated.

Apparently their servers are being inundated and can barely keep up.

Wasn’t a problem when I upgraded to Windows 10 using Windows Update on a different laptop.

Hopefully Windows 10 will activate automatically, otherwise I’ll have to get back onto Microsoft to see what they can do, or restore Windows 8 and update it, then clean install.

On my laptop, I have to change the boot order from BIOS. There is no option during startup to boot from pen drive. So should I just remove the pen drive while the laptop is restarting ( after installing windows 10 ) to avoid the setup starting up again ? Or something else?

We have an Acer cloudbook that recovery is not working on. So we tried this. Problem is, there are 4 partitions on this drive. System, MSR, Primary and Recovery. Should we be deleting all of them? Which ones? None? What’s the deal here?